Mark Carney plays a straight, technocratic bat, saying it’s not up to him to choose between various options:

Brexit is a unique situation, where there’s a potentially substantial change in the trading relationship with our largest trading partner. In that situation, the central bank’s job is to make sure the financial system is prepared, the governor says.

Mark Carney insisted several times yesterday that his Brexit analysis was a scenario, not a forecast (although this fine distinction gets lost).

Our economics editor Larry Elliott explains:

The Bank is not actually saying that the economy is going to shrink by 8% in a single year. For that to occur, three conditions would need to be fulfilled: the UK would need to leave the EU without a deal next spring; that departure would come as a bolt from the blue; and it would prompt punitive action from Brussels. “It is what could happen,” Carney said, “not what’s most likely to happen.”

But even so, this could be a final attempt to spook MPs into backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal, Larry adds:

In the weeks leading up to the EU referendum in June 2016, both the Bank and the Treasury issued warnings of the bad things that would happen in the event of a vote to leave, none of which came true. This time the constituency is much smaller: the 600-odd MPs who will vote on May’s EU agreement early next month. It looks like the last roll of the dice.

The Telegraph leads the coverage of the criticism of the governor, saying he has unleashed ‘Project Hysteria’.

“Mark Carney has been accused of undermining the Bank of England’s ‘independence and credibility’ after publishing an analysis of the economic impacts of no deal so bleak it has been dubbed ‘project hysteria’.”

Introduction: Bank of England under fire over Brexit forecasts

The unveiling of the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report and scenario analysis of Brexit at the Bank of England in London yesterday Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, is in the eye of a political storm today after warning that a no-deal Brexit could plunge Britain into the worst recession since the second world war.

Analysis released last night warned that the economy will shrink by an eye-watering 8%, house prices would plunge by a third, sterling would slump to parity with the US dollar, and interest rates will soar if Britain left the EU without a deal.

Bank of England says no-deal Brexit would be worse than 2008 crisis

Read more

Carney’s message was clear - the economy would suffer badly from a no-deal scenario, and many companies simply aren’t ready.

“Evidence from surveys and other UK authorities suggests that the country is not yet fully prepared for a cliff-edge Brexit.”

In sharp contrast, the Bank also provided Theresa May with some support -- arguing that her deal would be better for economic growth.

However, it also predicted that GDP would have been at least 1% higher in five years’ time if the UK had voted to remain; a boost to those pushing for a People’s Vote on the final deal.

Carney’s critics (and he’s attracted a few since joining the Bank in 2013), have accused him of undermining the Bank’s independence and credibility.

One (alas unnamed) minister has told the Daily Telegraph that the analysis is “mad, bonkers and b------s” (I don’t think the ‘b’ is for Brexit...)

Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg went particularly low, dubbing Carney a failed second-tier Canadian politician -- a jibe that attracted some stinging rebukes over his attempts to overthrow Theresa May.

Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner)

Carney worked at 13 years at Goldman Sachs, Ex Governor Bank of Canada, G7 Minister, Chair of financial stability board, member of the Group of 30 an international body of leading financiers and academics. Studied at Harvard, St Peters&Nuffield Oxford, Jacob cannot count to 48 😳 https://t.co/HnGj7UDsRa